1-4-3 Day celebrates first responders

Annual occasion in Pa. honor for Fred Rogers

Mister Rogers would have liked it: a day to be extra kind to your neighbors.

The day was Friday — Pennsylvania’s second annual 1-4-3 Day, an occasion when state officials encourage people to share their acts of kindness and gratitude. This year, a focus was first responders and essential workers who are at high-risk of contagion during the coronavirus pandemic.

The initiative began in 2019 when Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf declared the 143rd day of the year a day of kindness in honor of the state’s beloved kindness patron and promoter, Fred Rogers, who spent most of his life in and around

Pittsburgh. The number had special meaning to Rogers, reflecting the number of letters in his favorite phrase, “I love you.”

This year, the state launched a website asking residents to share their good deeds — from buying a meal for a neighbor to writing a thank you note for a mail deliverer — under the hashtag #143DayInPA.

“Acts of kindness should be happening always, but this is a way where there is encouragement to track it, to share it,” said Gisele Fetterman, wife of Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, John Fetterman.

She is the founder of the Free Store 15104, which provides free food, clothing and other essentials to the community in Braddock, a small steel town near Pittsburgh. Since the store was forced to close during the pandemic, she has helped raise more than $20,000 in supermarket gift cards for people in need.

“My wife is a walking 1-4-3 every day,” said her husband, the former mayor of Braddock.

Growing up, the couple said they were inspired by “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and its lessons of love, generosity and kindness for kids and adults.

“For me, Mister Rogers is very personal, I learned to speak English watching Mister Rogers when I was a young immigrant in this country, never knowing I’d end up in Pittsburgh,” said Gisele Fetterman, who came to the United States with her family from her native Brazil as an undocumented immigrant and later became a U.S. citizen.

“One of my earliest memories was watching Mister Rogers on TV,” her husband said. “Fifty years later, that message is not only still relevant, but more relevant and necessary than ever today.”

Keith Srakocic The Associated Press The statue of Fred Rogers is visible Friday, the second annual 1-4-3 Day, behind the fencing in a closed-off park in Pittsburgh.